Adult entertainment giant Vivid Entertainment Group said Wednesday it will start next month selling downloadable movies that viewers can burn to DVD and watch on their TVs.
Vivid said it will start selling burnable movies May 8 through online movie service CinemaNow, an Internet provider of on-demand movies, which had previously agreed to distribute Vivid films.
Earlier this month, CinemaNow and another online movie service, Movielink, said they will begin selling major films such as "Memoirs of a Geisha" on the same day DVDs are sold at stores in a watershed event for Hollywood in the digital age.
Movielink said it signed download-to-own deals with six major studios, and CinemaNow unveiled similar pacts with two big players as well as independent LionsGate Entertainment Corp., the studio behind this year's Oscar winner "Crash."
Both sites allow consumers to copy digital movies for backup use. Those copies will be software protected so they can not be burned onto DVD discs and replayed on DVD players.
Vivid's move to enable viewers to burn the films onto a DVD for about $19.95 apiece and then be able to watch them on the TV marks a first for Hollywood.
"With this, we're giving users the ability to download and burn a movie. And not just a movie, but all the things that come along with a standard DVD, like menus, graphics, art," said Bill Asher, co-chief executive officer and co-owner of Vivid.
